A conventional pancake maker includes a heated cooking surface and may be simply a frying pan heated, for example, by burning gas, wood, coal, or an electric element. The cooking surface is typically made of a thermally conductive material, for example a metal, and may include a non-stick coating, typically polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon).
Conventional pancake makers do not provide for patterning a picture into the pancake as part of the cooking process.
Waffle makers which produce an embossed die pattern, usually a square, rectangular or similar periodic grid are well known. Also, a pancake or waffle maker die face forming an embossed decorative pattern is presented in U.S. Design Patent D414,075 to Edward L. Mishan.
A pancake and egg cooker that produces an embossed decorative pattern is also known in the prior art, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,659 issued Jul. 1, 1997 to Albert J. Sesona and Ernesto E. Blanco. In this case, the embossed pattern is equivalent to the die pattern of the waffle maker, but with varying shapes replacing the periodic grid.
The limitations of the prior art patterned pancake cookers include:
1. Slow cooking rate, due in part to the need for heating both sides of the cooker separately by flipping the cooker over to alternate between the two sides, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,659.
2. Limited selection of patterns. The commercially available pancake maker includes only one pattern, the United States Flag, and does not provide convenient and low cost interchangeable patterns.
3. Low pattern quality, as measured by resolution, the smallest feature size that can be reliably printed, and contrast, the difference in color between light and dark regions.
3a. The resolution is limited because small features, especially narrow and deep depressions, will not be reproduced in the cooked pancake due to batter sticking to the bottom and sides of the depression in the cooking surface. Thus prior art pancake cookers can emboss simple textual messages and graphics such as “Good Morning” and a “Happy Face”, but cannot produce fine detail required by more appealing decorative patterns.
3b. Contrast is limited because the pattern is produced by embossing, a process where depressions in the cooking surface yield protrusions, or bumps in the surface of the cooked pancake. Since the entire surface of the pancake is exposed to the cooking surface for a fixed time, the entire area of the embossed pattern is cooked to a uniform color. There is no way to control the color in the pattern.